Sir Herbert James Gunn was born in 1893 in Glasgow and first studied at the Glasgow School of Art. He then studied at the Academie Julien in Paris until 1914 when he moved back to the UK. Gunn's time in France developed his radical approach and stark palette which heightened the dramatic placement of forms. In 1913 Gunn's pictorial arrangements were seen as very avant garde, and challenged the sentimental landscapes produced by most of the British Edwardian artists. However, on Gunn's return to Britain the artistic elite received him amongst similarly radical colonies such as Newlyn, Staiths and St Ives. Gunn became a member of the Royal Academy in 1953 and was invited to paint Queen Elizabeth II in her Coronation robes. This picture hangs in the Royal Collection to this day.
